Letters

November 04, 2004

Letters Missing

Facts About Writers

In the Oct. 29 edition of The Courant, a letter to the editor was printed attributed to Lauren Artioli-Harris regarding her concerns about the Old Saybrook Police Department and the rehiring of laid-off officers.

An important piece of information was left out in the printing of the letter, and that is to identify the letter writer as a relative of one of the laid-off officers. Ms. Artioli-Harris is the sister-in-law of former officer Cindy Huckel, who is trying to get her job back. The Courant also failed to identify Robert Harris as the brother of Cindy Huckel in a letter he wrote in September.

I bring this to your attention simply to clarify who the players are.

John J. Torrenti, Old Saybrook

Lung Cancer Needs

More Awareness

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. This cancer doesn't get as much play as others, which is kind of sad since it ranks as the No. 1 cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. each year.

Lung cancer causes more cancer deaths among women yearly than breast and cervical cancers combined. There is a stigma of sorts connected to lung cancer. Since most cases are directly related to smoking, a popular attitude is: ``You brought it on yourself.'' Still, there are millions of people who have smoked and never gotten lung cancer and a number of people who never smoked and did get this dreaded disease. Lung cancer is a quiet, lethal disease. By the time most patients are diagnosed with lung cancer, they have passed the curable stages of the disease. In fact, the average prognosis for recovery is among the lowest of any cancer. Upon diagnosis, only 15 percent of patients survive another five years.

Unfortunately, there is no approved screening method for diagnosing lung cancer before the disease reaches the later stages. Compared with funding for other major cancers, lung cancer receives comparatively little research funding. Please go to the web sites www.lungcancer.org or www.alcase.org (the Alliance for Lung Cancer) to learn more about causes, diagnosing , prevention and treatments for lung cancer.

Doraine Riley, Old Saybrook

Firefighters' Grants

An Ongoing Process

As the fire chief of Middletown's South Fire District, I find it necessary to respond to an Oct. 19 letter regarding firefighters' grants. I choose to respond only to make the taxpayers in the district aware of the facts concerning their fire department.

The South Fire District has applied for a dozen or more grants to assist the district in procuring needed equipment while minimizing the operating costs as much as possible for the taxpayers, our customers. The grants total more than $1 million since I became chief in 1997.

Through grants, the district has successfully purchased two thermal imaging cameras ($26,978), a cardiac defibrillator ($2,500), 14 air packs ($47,600) and a station compressor ($28,000) to fill those air packs. Also included was extensive training and equipment for firefighter safety and survival ($35,000) and emergency medical equipment ($3,800).

Our grant requests have focused on objectives set by the fire chief. The last deputy did the applications for the federal grants and was assisted by department personnel. In other words, it is a team effort by my dedicated staff. Deputy Chief Steven Krol has continued in the grant-writing process and the district has not missed a beat.

I am personally managing a request to the state for $463,000 in bonding for fire station improvements. Just because Mr. Bialy is not personally aware of this activity and others does not mean that the South Fire District or myself is ``not on the ball,'' as he indicates.

What we can't do is ``insist that we receive grants'' as suggested. We can't make the Federal Emergency Management Agency approve the fire district's grants. The real facts for our taxpayers are that in 2003, FEMA awarded $706 million to only 8,700 fire departments. There were nearly 20,000 fire departments that applied across the United States and they requested more than $2 billion. Quick math indicates a 35 percent success rate, or a 65 percent rejection rate, depending on how you look at it.

To assist the district in receiving grant money we have enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, participated in grant-writing workshops and even had our fire union president participate in a grant review process. I have personally sent letters to President Bush and U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd and Joseph Lieberman to urge that federal funding for fire department grants remain intact.

We have done all this and will continue to actively pursue fiscal remedies for our customers while providing the highest level of service that you deserve.

Anyone wishing to discuss this issue or any others that they may have regarding the South Fire District can contact me at the fire station at 860-347-6661. Or stop in to see the department that we take great pride in.